IRA withdraws disarmament co-operation

IRA mural

9:11PM GMT 02 Feb 2005

The IRA has withdrawn future cooperation on disarmament, pushing the Northern Ireland peace process into a new crisis.

The Provisionals said the scheme to put all its weapons completely and verifiably beyond use was no longer on the table, claiming the British and Irish governments had withdrawn their commitments and obligations.

The IRA has carried out three acts of decommissioning.

But in a statement tonight it denied it was an obstacle to a lasting and durable settlement over allegations of criminal activity - as Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern had claimed yesterday.

A statement said: "We do not intend to remain quiescent within this unacceptable and unstable situation.

"It has tried our patience to the limit.

"Consequently, on reassessment of our position, and in response to the governments and others withdrawing their commitments, we are taking all our proposals off the table.

"It is our intention to closely monitor and to protect to the best of our ability the rights of Republicans and our support base."

The IRA has already rejected claims it was involved in the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery but claims by police chiefs on both sides of the Irish border that it was have ruled out any lingering hope of getting the peace process back on track again.

The statement, which did not carry any threat of a return to full scale violence, said: "The IRA has demonstrated our commitment to the peace process again and again.

"We wanted to succeed. We have played a key role in achieving the progress achieved so far.

"We are prepared, as part of a genuine and collective effort to do so again if and when the conditions are created for this."

A Downing Street spokesman said tonight they were not surprised by the IRA statement.

"The fact remains that it was the IRA that did carry out the Northern Bank robbery and as the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach said yesterday therefore it is the IRA that is the sole obstacle to moving forward."